You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday. -- Psalm 91:5-6 (ESV)
It is no time to continue to sugar coat the truth, no matter how much it might hurt our delicate sensibilities. The NAR dominionist force continues to sweep across America and will further gut the church this coming election cycle unless it is called out for what it is. Evil. Before you start readying your whataboutisms, realize this is not an endorsement of anything else. We should be smart enough to walk and chew gum at the same time. We should be able to call out one form of evil while not supporting another. I cannot imagine standing before Christ trying to justify my zeal for carnal politics by explaining to Him the lesser of two evils. As Don Henley once wrote, evil is still evil, in anybody's name.
I say this as the backdrop to a short story making the rounds today regarding America's heretic, Paula White. What you are about to hear is disgusting. It is everything wrong about Christianity today. It is bad enough to lie about the bible to enrich yourself but to take advantage of people in the middle of the COVID crisis is simply evil. Yet I am not surprised by Paula White. A wolf does what a wolf does. It does not care about technicalities such as viruses or global panic. It just seeks to devour sheep. This story also touches upon the NAR dominionist as well. It is one thing to honestly believe one candidate or politician is better than another. We are entitled to that opinion. As Christians however, we are not entitled to lie about the person and try to transform him into the second coming of King Cyrus. We are not entitled to lead others to worship any man, regardless of whether we pretend he has an Elijah anointing with a Deborah mantle. Paula White is the spiritual advisor and pastor to President Trump. This is the person credited with "leading him to Christ." Evil does not co-exist with righteousness. One who spends their lives in opposition to Jesus and the cause of the Gospel does not then lead anyone to the real Christ. It just does not work that way.
In case you were on the fence regarding Paula White, pay attention. If her claim that God told her that 1Chronicles 22:9 meant you should send her $229 was not enough to sway you, please pay attention. If her being investigated by the Senate and her five-million-dollar bank account have not been enough to convince you then please pay attention. At the link about you will find a short article with accompanying video from pastor Paula as she claims she is a hospital for the soul-sick and spiritually sick. Right after this absurd claim she states:
"Maybe you'd like to send a $91 seed, and that's just putting your faith with Psalm 91. That psalm refers to being saved from deadly pestilence and plague. Send $9 or whatever God tells you to do. Don't forget, now is not the time to abandon your covenant with God. It's a time that you go deeper. Stand with your pastor." -- Paula White
Mind you, this was during her online coronavirus prayer session. First let us deal with the numerology, which is decidedly unchristian. We do not look for coincidences with numbers to bolster our faith. Psalm 23 has some great promises, why not choose that one? Oh right because it would be $68 less per offering then. Do not miss what she is selling here. If you send her $91 then you are somehow supercharging your faith to deal with the virus. Now, Psalm 91 is a beautiful Psalm and many believe it to be prophetic about promises to Israel for the upcoming tribulation in the end times. Others simply interpret it as promises for who God is to His faithful. Either way the key verses do not promise protection from pestilence and destruction -- it promises that you will not fear them. What is Paula saying about the god she serves? That unless you "stand with your pastor" by sending her money he will not protect you from these things? Let us not gloss over the startling similarity to a time when someone else quoted Psalm 91:
Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, "'He will command his angels concerning you,' and "'On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.'" Jesus said to him, "Again it is written, 'You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.'" -- Psalm 91:5-7 (ESV)
The devil tried to leverage scripture to have Jesus test God. The Lord says nothing about throwing oneself off a building. Likewise, Paula White tries to leverage scripture to steal money from a frightened flock but again, God says nothing in Psalm 91 of what she promises nor does it have anything to do with "sowing seeds." The Satanic switch is subtle but obvious if one looks. Paula says that Psalm 91 refers to being saved from pestilence and plague but it does not say that at all. The pestilence will still stalk in darkness and the destruction will still waste at noonday. The promise is that the blessed assurance of everlasting life will prevent the fear of these things from consuming he who has faith. Now, verse three does state that God will deliver us from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. The imagery used of the fowler is one who uses traps to catch birds. Satan uses traps all of the time to try and snare us and of course it is on display when he quotes this Psalm out of context to tempt Christ. Paula White is just another in a long line of fowlers, trying to trap the believer into thinking sending her money buys them some extra level of supernatural protection that is simply not promised.
The promises of Psalm 91 are general promises. They are not meant as an insurance policy for believers in every situation on this earth. Christians will die in the COVID crisis, as they had before in every other pestilent crisis that befell this fallen world. The true deliverance is not from the disease but from the snare of the fowlers such as Paula White who sickeningly seek to profit from the chaos and fear. As if this nauseating display was not enough, White flat out warns everyone that not sending her money is akin to abandoning their covenant with God. Now, many may dismiss this is just hyperbole but imagine for a moment those that are spiritually weak or new in their faith. What White infers here is vile. It is pure evil to speak on behalf of God and claim that one will lose their covenant with Him if they do not send in cash fast.
In closing realize the linked article is from the Huffington Post, which is as secular a source as you can find. There is a bible verse that proclaims that hucksters like White cause the unsaved to blaspheme the way of the truth. That is what this produces. The world sees Paula White for the fraud that she is while the church gives a nod and a wink because she is linked directly to the NAR politician they all worship. When White put out her new book last year several NAR dominionists endorsed it until they received the appropriate backlash. People like Franklin Graham, Jerry Falwell Jr., Greg Laurie, and Robert Jeffress all gushed at the release of this book and then tried to run away from their own words when confronted about it. Please realize this is not about Donald Trump. He worships Mammon, just like Paula White does. It is no wonder they are connected spiritually. It is however about those who claim the mantle of Christianity and try to pretend that Trump is something he is not. If you want to make arguments that he has been good for the church, go ahead. Just stop pretending he has been prophesied about in scripture. Enough is enough. Stop defending or ignoring the obvious fact that even the Huffington Post can see. That he is surrounded by false teachers. Pray for him as our bible commands us to but start by praying that the wolves surrounding him are scattered so that someone might actually preach the true Gospel of Jesus Christ to him and do so without charging him 91 bucks for it.
Rev. Anthony.
